I don’t know about you, but our family went all out for the Super Bowl. My oldest son’s birthday was the weekend prior, and he’s been really into watching the Eagles this year; needless to say, it made for the “perfect storm” of a party. There was heaps of food everywhere. Sure, there was some fruit and vegetables somewhere in that smorgasbord… But they were pretty hard to find amongst the mountains of pizza, the heaps of wings and mozzarella sticks, the chips and dip… And then cake, muffins, ice cream? My willpower to stop eating junk was as flat as the Chiefs’ defense. To say I overindulged was an understatement.
I use this example to bring up a word that we probably don’t use often these days: gluttony. Gluttony refers to an excess of eating and/or drinking, though sometimes it refers to other types of overindulgence. First things first: there is nothing immoral about enjoying delicious food or beverages. God created us with taste buds and a sense of smell so we can enjoy what we consume. It’s also how we can determine if something is not suitable for consumption. Have some milk near expiration? Pull it from the fridge and give it a whiff, or roll the dice and take a swig… You’ll know pretty quickly if it’s still good. Just like the old adage, “Everything in moderation,”, there’s nothing wrong with eating and enjoying tasty food. Where we can get into trouble is consuming in excess. Ever eat too many sweets and get that belly ache? Perhaps you’ve had the “meat sweats” at a Brazilian steakhouse? How about consuming one too many (or multiple too many) alcoholic beverages? All of these can be summed up under gluttony. (Relatedly, ever wonder why social media calls the stream of content you consume your “feed”? Maybe that’ll give us pause the next time we catch ourselves scrolling and scrolling…)
I bring these up because it’s been something I’ve been chewing on (pun somewhat intended) this week. It’s something that we’re all guilty of, but perhaps we don’t even view it as something bad. Gluttony, however, is actually a part of a larger group of sins known as hedonism. How many of you have heard some variation of the phrase, “If it feels good, do it”? Hedonism is an ethical system or worldview that prioritizes seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. You can probably also see why it’s very attractive to us Americans in 2025. Contrast that with what the Westminster Shorter Catechism describes as the chief end of man: to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. It’s a complete inversion of where we should find our enjoyment.
So what makes this sinful? Why should we avoid it? I have a couple thoughts. Turn with me to Galatians 5:16-26; read through it and keep it open, we’ll be referencing it a few times here. Paul is setting a clear delineation between following things of the flesh (in other words, things of our base instincts and selfish pleasure-seeking) and following things of the Spirit of God.
1. It puts an improper (and perhaps idolatrous) focus on our desires. Let’s look at the list in verse 19. How many of them could be summed up by excessive consumption or prioritization of solely pleasure? I’d say most of them.
2. It demonstrates a loss of self-control. In Galatians 5:22-23, one of the fruits of the Spirit of God working in your life is self-control. Gluttony, and to a larger extent hedonism, demonstrate a loss of control in search of gratification of some of our instinctual desires. Paul is pointing out that the ability to control yourself is evidence of spiritual maturity.
3. On the topic of self-control… Let’s zoom out a bit. When you look at the list of the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control - there is a discipline involved. Love is a choice, to do what’s right for the other person regardless of consequences to yourself. Joy is a feeling of happy contentment in God. Peace, patience, kindness, and all the rest - all of these involve a sustained discipline, which are supported by a foundation set into Christ and in God’s word to us. Note also verse 25 - if we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. To me, it evokes the imagery of disciplined soldiers marching. Do we keep in time with the Spirit as we march?
4. Paul gives a stern warning that those who participate in the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. He even underscores his warning twice in verse 21. Now, is this saying that if you happened to over-eat last Thanksgiving or had one too many at that one office Christmas party, you’re now barred from heaven? No, I don’t think so. But what is your life marked by? What fruit are you bearing? What fragrance does your life give off? Do people know me as an a loving, joyful, peaceful, gentle person? Or do I have a reputation (before others and before God) for impurity, for having a temper, for sowing division, for drinking too much? To quote Jesus in Matthew 7:19-20, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
Am I still going to mess up and overindulge? This side of heaven, I know it’s going to happen. Especially those times I visit the steakhouse and I try to justify eating a hearty meal because of the cost. But my encouragement to you is this: think twice with how much you consume. Whether it’s food, whether it’s drink, whether it’s television or social media… be careful about it. It can be a snare. The indication of walking with the Spirit is repentance, choosing to turn away from such desires. Find your satisfaction in the Lord. Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)
Tim Leidy
On the evening of March 5th, Leidy’s Church will have a 7:00 pm worship service, which will include the Lord’s Supper. Ash Wednesday typically begins the Lenten season, roughly six weeks before Easter Sunday. It is a time of contemplation of the days leading up to the Lord Jesus’ Passion in preparation of His historic bodily resurrection from the dead. Lent is for Christians a time to pray, fast and exercise abstinence from routine activities of life to give time for acts of charity. We encourage you to attend this special service of worship.
When March rolls around that means it’s Missions Month at Leidy’s Church. Over the years the Lord Jesus has blessed this congregation with many enriching relationships with missionaries and mission agencies serving in vast variety of outreach activities locally and around the world. Each Sunday in March a mission speaker is present to connect us more fully and intimately with his or her particular mission.
Each makes a brief presentation in church, but the full presentation is made during the Sunday school hour. If you want to find out what mission work looks like, then join the folk in the Fellowship Hall during the Sunday school hour. Sometimes we straggle into the Fellowship Hall, rather than being present and alert at the 8:45 starting time. If you do that during March, you may miss an important element of the mission presentation! Be timely!
Here’s our Mission Line-Up for Mission Month 202t5:
•March 2nd – Pastor Bill Devlin – Pastor Devlin is both a long-time friend of Leidy’s Church and a new addition to our Mission support list. Years ago we supported him as he headed up the Philadelphia Family Policy Council. For over a decade, though, Pastor Devlin has been a roving ambassador/pastor to the persecuted church around the world. He’s the one who goes when they say it is too dangerous to go. Come listen to Pastor Bill and be amazed at what the Lord Jesus can do in the most unlikely and needy places.
•March 9th – Chariots for Hope – You may have forgotten it or you may not know it, but Leidy’s Church helps provide support for the Mahiga Home in Kenya. This home functions like an orphanage in that it seeks to provide Christian discipleship and long-term physical, emotional, and educational care and provision. Currently, Mahiga has 103 children in its care. There are 41 primary age children, 34 secondary age children, and 37 post secondary age children. Angela Farlow will be with us to explain everything. Don’t miss it!
•March 16th – Holy Land Ministries – The Holy Lands have been the hot lands for several generations, none moreso than now. Holy Land Ministries oversees two evangelical Christian schools in that hot area: one in Bethlehem and one in Hebron. Dave and Lois Garrison are overseers of that ministry. They will fill us in on how those schools have been able to continue since the massacre of October 7, 2023. It’s not been easy, but a tremendous challenge. Here’s an opportunity to hear of Christian perseverance in trying times.
•March 23rd – Dreams Alive – Just returned from leading a medical mission team to the Middle East, Denny Barger is our missionary presenter this Sunday. A team of eight doctors, nurses, a dentist, and a physical therapist ministered to over 500 patients in about five days. It was a most impactful experience for the medical personnel, many of whom had not seen the drastic and painful results of Christian persecution, not the destitution in which many folk life every day. Denny will have some film clips from the trip, so, come!
•March 30th – Seeds for the Harvest – Although it is not covered in the news very often, the war in Burma/Myanmar rages on at the cost of much human suffering. Steve and Kelly Marks minister in northern Thailand where thousands of refugees flee from the conflict in Burma. They come with only the clothes on their backs and perhaps carrying a disease or two and some bodily injuries. Working with indigenous Thailanders, Steve and Kelly labor to bring hope, healing, and the Christian gospel to the refugees. It’s story we need to hear.
There you have it. That’s our line-up for Mission Month 2025. If you would like to invite any of the missionaries home for Sunday lunch, let Pastor John know and he will set it up. First come, first served!
On Saturday, March 29, we invite you to join us for the launch of the first Leidy’s Church cookbook in over a decade!
We’ll be hosting a spaghetti dinner that will start at 6pm that evening. There will be a dessert buffet featuring recipes submitted and featured in the new cookbook. And you’ll have the opportunity to purchase your own copy of the new cookbook.
Come on out! Celebrate the rich history of sharing food together at Leidy’s Church as we launch this newest cookbook in honor of Marilee Hughes, a longtime proprietor of the Leidy’s Church kitchens.
You can register online for the dinner and there will be paper forms available for you to register for the dinner as well.
There’s no program, but we’ll be celebrating the legacy of Marilee Hughes and many other volunteers who have kept us fed and happy over the years here at Leidy’s Church.
There’s no cost for the dinner, but please let us know that you’re coming so there’s enough for everyone. All proceeds from the cookbook will benefit the In This Time of Need program operating in Venezuela. If you have any interest in helping with the dinner, please contact the church office.
Thank you! And we hope to see you at 6 on March 29th!
Get Ready for Some Magnification!
Kids Quest Spring 2025 theme is Magnified! Kids Quest will encourage kids to look closely at the details of God’s amazing world and magnify, or proclaim, the greatness of God. God made us, cares about us, loves us, forgives us, and is faithful to keep all His promises to us. We can praise God together! We were made to magnify God!
Family Dinner - Join us for dinner! Kids Quest participants will be sitting with their assigned Table Parents in order to get to know their peers and build friendships. Parents and other siblings are encouraged to stay for dinner and meet other families!
*Grace Notes - Join our kid's choir before Kids Quest for singing, games and fun!
Register participants, youth volunteers, or Table Parent/General Volunteers all at one place!
Ladies of Leidy’s
Calling ALL ladies, YES, ALL! Please join us on Tuesday, March 4 at 6 PM in the Fellowship Hall for our annual Ladies of Leidy's Potluck Dinner. Come enjoy delightfully warm and sincere fellowship as well as a variety of homemade dishes (maybe some new recipes to share also?). A brief business meeting will follow our dinner. Please see the sign-up sheet that is posted in the Narthex by the elevator or you may sign up online via Church Center (Select calendar/Ladies of Leidy's Pot Luck Dinner/sign up). Mark your calendar and hope to see you there!
Mark your calendars now for the kids Spring musical “The Bumble BEEattitudes” there will be performances on Saturday, April 5 beginning at 6pm and again on Sunday, April 6 at 4pm.
The Bumble BEEatitudes is full of truth, teaching us the importance of receiving and showing mercy, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and loving our enemies. You will hear the truths that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount from a bunch of insects with a Buzzy bee-attitude. Watch as they sing, dance and learn about receiving God’s mercy and showing it to others. You might even learn some bee facts you didn’t know! You’ll meet a few energetic bees, as well as a few hungry birds and some surprise guest stars! The show is free so this is the perfect place to invite friends, neighbors and co-workers to hear solid Gospel truth presented by some really cute kids!
Please welcome and get to know our new members:
Levi & Morgan Slack Suren & Grace Pakhtigian
Ryan & Christy Fisher Oskar & Meg Huber
Don & Karen Haggerty Cheryl Gricoski
Present: Brian Radcliff, Brian Shoemaker, Darren DePaul, Dave Doran, Francis Weiss, Jerry Kulp, Jim Kinney, Josh Heebner, Ken Merritt, Kendall Musselman, Shaun Permar, and Tony Kapusta
Absent- Jim Foote
Josh Heebner called the meeting to order
Devotions: Jerry Kulp opened in prayer and read Psalms Barber Larry, who is in heaven with the Lord, encouraged him to read the bible. He spoke of a time that was rough not just in his own life but that of his kids and others around.
God does things differently than how we planned them, but it always works out better. Being on the other side of the hustle and heartache, God has been faithful, and his blessings have been great. He opened how being a manager for 40 years and being “in charge” he has learned to lean on prayer increasingly in this time. He quoted something from Joni Erickson that said, “how could God allow this to happen to my body, but he's more worried about your soul.” He spoke about our church family and the amazing goodness God has shown us.
January Minutes Approved: First: Brian Shoemaker; Second: Francis Weiss, unanimously carried.
Financial Report: January closed with a solid month of giving - on a weekly average, the giving was just slightly above our "budgeted" income amount. Not too much activity or variances to call out yet, only a month into the year.
Both Darren and Baird went on their scheduled conferences/trainings - this was $2,700 in January. Also had almost $2,900 in snow removal.
General Fund balance is over $99k for the year.
There was discussion about CD’s the church has. Two CD’s, 50k and 75k, mature in March. At that time, another CD for 75k will be started out of the renovation fund. Motion to open CD out of renovation fund by Jerry K, Ken M was the second, and it was carried unanimously. It was reinforced that it was not our money but Gods.
Financial Report Approved: First: Kendall Musselman; Second: Francis Weiss, unanimously carried.
Love Cradle International holds its annual banquet on Saturday, March 22nd, in the Leidy’s Church Fellowship Hall. Ordinarily, we would expect the banquet to begin at 5:30 or 6 in the evening. Not in 2025. The banquet will begin at 1 pm. That’s one o’clock in the afternoon. So you might want to skip lunch on the 22nd!
Everyone is invited to attend and celebrate the resurrection of Christ and a shared mission to bring hope to vulnerable children and families in Ukraine. There will be an abundance of traditional Ukrainian food and other tasty items for your palate and live music – some by talented children – to stir your soul.
It is true that Steve Yagilnicky died earlier this year. As he was the president of Love Cradle, there was some concern whether the annual banquet could be held on schedule. His wife Irina has taken up the reins and making certain that all goes according to schedule.
Though pre-registration is not required, it would be helpful. If you’d like to pre-register, you may do so by sending a text to (267) 777-2711 or by emailing programs@lovecradleint.org. If you do so by March 18th, it would be most helpful.
Irina and the Love Cradle folk look forward to a delightfully satisfying time of celebration and inspiration with you.
Question 50: What does Christ’s resurrection mean for us?
Christ triumphed over sin and death by being physically resurrected, so that all who trust in him are raised to new life in this world and to everlasting life in the world to come. Just as we will one day be resurrected, so this world will one day be restored. But those who do not trust in Christ will be raised to everlasting death.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–14: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Commentary - Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The whole creation will have been delivered from the bondage of corruption and will be enjoying “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Everything will be glorified, even nature itself. And that seems to me to be the biblical teaching about the eternal state: that what we call heaven is life in this perfect world as God intended humanity to live it. When He put Adam in Paradise at the beginning Adam fell, and all fell with him, but men and women are meant to live in the body, and will live in a glorified body in a glorified world, and God will be with them.
D. A. Carson
The resurrection of Jesus Christ carries with it many, many wonderful implications. The first is that it vindicates Jesus. In other words, some people thought that if Jesus died on the cross, it could only be because he deserved it. He was declared guilty by a Roman court. And the Old Testament itself insists that anyone who hangs on a tree is under the curse of God. But as it turns out, he did not die as a damned man because of his own sin. Rather, he was bearing the sin of others, and that sacrifice so pleased God that God raised him from the dead. Thus, his resurrection is a form of vindication. It is proof positive that when Jesus said with his dying words, “It is finished,” God agreed. His Father agreed. The work of redemption had been accomplished, and the Father vindicates Jesus through the resurrection.
The resurrection also demonstrates the gospel’s concern for human beings embodied. In other words, some people think of our ultimate state as kind of ethereal spirit beings without any connection with bodies. But part of elementary, fundamental Christian truth is that in the new heaven and the new earth, the ultimate goal, the home of righteousness, there will not be just heavenly existence. It’s earthly existence. It’s a new heaven and a new earth, and we will have resurrection bodies like Christ’s. That’s one of the great arguments of 1 Corinthians15. Paul argues that if Christ rose from the dead in a resurrection body— which, however strange in some ways and remarkable it was, could be touched and handled, could be spoken to, could be seen, and could actually eat human food— then when we, who are finally resurrected on the last day, come into that final state, we will have resurrection bodies like his resurrection body. That is our destination. So his resurrection is the firstfruit of what is often called a general resurrection at the end of the age. All human beings will be resurrected, whether to life or to condemnation, because we are essentially embodied people.
And with this comes also a vision of life and existence beyond this life. We should not think that Christianity merely sorts out some problems in our lives here. Rather, the ultimate goal is beyond this life. When we get older and more hairs fall out and arthritis kicks in, or we slink away into dementia, suddenly resurrection existence begins to look very good indeed because our hope is not to survive to seventy or eighty or even ninety. Our hope finally is a body like Christ’s resurrection body. And his is the firstfruit; ours has been secured by him, and we are coming along behind him to join him in resurrection existence: full-bodied resurrection existence in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. That’s why 1 Thessalonians 4, the great resurrection chapter, ends with the words “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
On Sunday afternoon, April 6th, St. Philip Orthodox Christian Church will present a celebration of the saving work of Jesus Christ. The Orthodox Church has a tradition of hymnody that stretches back millennia. Meaningful and moving and memorable pieces of music sung a cappella by the St. Philip choir will resonate in your soul. This is a particularly meaningful way to prepare for Easter. The concert begins at 1:30.
Refreshments will be served following the concert. A freewill offering also will be accepted to benefit the 2025 St. Philip teen mission trip to Appalachia. St. Philip church is located at 1970 Clearview Road, Souderton. It’s direct across the street from Solar Atmospheres where Roger Jones worked.
It’s time to change our clocks. This is the bad one, the one where we lose an hour. So, on the evening of March 8th – when you get home from wherever you went that night – go straight to bed. And set your clock ahead one hour. It’s going to jump ahead during the night if you don’t do it. Then, you can awaken on Sunday morning and be able to arrive at Leidy’s Church in a timely fashion! It’s time to Spring Forward!
Birthday
1 Dottie Lahl, Doug Lindner, Rodney Shoemaker
2 Harvey Shoemaker
3 Diane Gehman, Brandon Kehs
4 Juliana Kapusta
5 Oaklie Hager
6 Gina Shoemaker
10 Isaac Kehs
14 Brad Peck, Graham Vogelzang
17 Irv Kulp, Irina Yagilnicky
24 Cassy Olszyk, Rick Kehs, Ken Peck, Thelma Spitzkopf,
Tony Wilwert
26 Ruthie Niederhaus
27 Barb Gehman, Charlie Kretschmer
28 Vangie Niederhaus, Clinton Radcliff
29 Emma Coale, Laurie Plank
30 Sherman Focht, Marlene Hughes
31 Meghann Permar
Anniversary
6 John & Fern Vasey
